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Human Rights and Rule of Law - News and
Analysis
Beijing Court Orders Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng To Serve Original Three-Year Sentence
December 16, 2011
Less than a week before missing human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng's five-year suspended sentence was set to expire, Chinese officials claimed he violated the conditions of his parole, and that he must now serve out his original three-year criminal sentence. Over the course of Gao's five-year parole period, officials have subjected him to intense harassment, including repeated abduction, torture, and forced disappearance. Even with this announcement, the whereabouts and condition of Gao, who has been missing since April 2010, are still not known.
The official state news agency Xinhua reported on December 16, 2011, that the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court had determined that Gao Zhisheng "seriously violated" the terms of his five-year parole on multiple occasions. The court said it had revoked Gao's parole and that Gao would be required to serve his original three-year sentence in prison. The Xinhua report did not provide any details regarding the alleged parole violations. In December 2006, Gao was sentenced to three years in prison for "inciting subversion," but his sentence was suspended for five years. The suspension would have expired on December 22, 2011.
Gao's family and human rights activists expressed concern over the lack of information about Gao's condition, according to a December 16 article in the New York Times (NYT) and a December 16 Associated Press (AP) article, reprinted in the Washington Post. "I still don't know where he is or what kind of condition he's in," said Gao's wife, Geng He, according to the AP article. One human rights researcher in Hong Kong, Joshua Rosenzweig, also raised questions about the basis of the court's decision. "It's hard to fathom what they might be referring to when they say that he violated his parole given that he seems to have been under constant supervision," he said, according to AP.
Background: Gao Zhisheng
A self-taught lawyer, Gao has repeatedly angered Chinese authorities by taking on sensitive cases and by exposing human rights abuses in China. In October 2005, Gao wrote an open letter to President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao detailing torture of Falun Gong practitioners. A month later, authorities shut down Gao's law firm and revoked his lawyers' license. In December 2006, Gao was convicted of "inciting subversion of state power" and was given a three-year sentence, suspended for five years. After writing an open letter to the U.S. Congress in September 2007, Gao was reportedly detained and tortured for more than 50 days. In February 2009, Gao was forcibly taken by public security personnel in his hometown in Shaanxi province.
Gao reportedly resurfaced in late March 2010. In mid-April 2010, Gao disappeared again, according to an April 30, 2010, NYT article and a May 1, 2010, Voice of America article. During his brief reappearance Gao gave several interviews with foreign media. He reportedly disclosed details of being tortured to AP and asked the news agency not to publish the accounts unless he went missing again or was able to leave China. On January 11, 2011, AP reported (reprinted in the Huffington Post) the details, quoting Gao as saying, "That degree of cruelty, there's no way to recount it... For 48 hours my life hung by a thread."
Gao's case has attracted international attention due to his legal advocacy on behalf of religious minorities, including underground Christians and the banned Falun Gong spiritual group, and on behalf of workers detained for protesting low wages and poor working conditions, ethnic minorities, rural farmers, and human rights activists. On August 22, 2011, the Chairman and Cochairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China issued a statement calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Gao Zhisheng.
For more information on Gao Zhisheng and other Chinese human rights defenders, see Section II¡ªHuman Rights¡ªCriminal Justice in the CECC 2011 Annual Report.
| Source: -See Summary (2011-12-16 ) |
Posted on: 2012-05-22 |
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| Link directly to this item with: http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/index.phpd?showsingle=167921 |
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